Bus Routes Just a Piece of the Job

The Concord school department has a new director of transportation. Spyros Saucier has just finished the bus routes for the year, and had a chance to answer our questions about his job.

Q. Where did you work before and what is your professional background?

A. I worked for Student Transportation of America, I was the Terminal Manager
for their Londonderry, NH school bus contract. I have been in this
profession for about 14 years, worked in the Safety/Training department
for LaidLaw Transit, General Manager for North Reading Transportation,
Transportation Director for Community Teamwork, Operations Director for
Green Bay Metro running their Transit System, I also owned and operated
Saucier Transit, Inc., along with being a co-founder of ESJ Solutions
where I designed a student tracking program. I hold numerous DOT
certifications in bus driver training, accident investigations and I am a
certified instructor for the SMITH System defensive driving program, along
with several other certification.

Q. What kind of experience does it take to manage the transportation for a town like Concord?

A.  believe you need to be a well rounded person, who has worn all the hats,
driving, dispatching, training and managing to really know how a
transportation department works, those experience will give you the tools
needed to manage a system like Concord.

Q. How long does it take you to juggle all the bus routes, and reach all
the new streets and houses?

A. I start working on the routes about the first week of July and hope to
have them finished by the first week of August, then I have the drivers
run the routes for their feedback and make necessary adjustments. Then
once the routes go to the public, we take all the parents concerns, go
through each of them to see if the route needs to be adjusted and call the
parents back with any changes that have been made at their request, so all
in all, about a month an a half.

Q. What are your hobbies; what kind of music do you like to listen to?
What's on your iPod?

A. Well for my hobbies, I am really into working on cars, online video games

that I play with my kids (World of Warcraft), I listen to all types of music from rock to transsiberian orchestra and I do not carry or own an iPod.

Q. Now that the bus routes are set, where do you concentrate your efforts?

A. Parent and School Department concerns, ongoing training for our bus
drivers, making sure all of the buses are ready to go for the new year.